1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a disappearing shelf-supporting device for furniture.
2. State of the Prior Art
Devices for shelf support in furniture are known which are adapted to be inserted in an appropriate seat on the shelf edge and are provided with a pin elastically jutting out of the edge for fitting into a hole in the wall of the piece of furniture.
These devices have construction expedients capable of enabling the pin to keep two steady positions, a rest and an operating positions respectively. In the first position the pin is retracted in the shelf edge and in the second it projects from the shelf edge.
For obtaining this operation in known devices elastic wings are generally present that interfere with appropriate hollows in the side wall of the pin: in order to move the pin between the two positions the elastic resistance of the wings is to be manually overcome.
The structure of known devices of the mentioned type however, is relatively complicated because a given number of component pieces are to be made that are then assembled to obtain the complete device. Alternatively, the number of pieces can be reduced, making the elastic wings of one piece construction with the device body for example, which body is in turn of one piece construction. But the known structure, with elastic wings emerging in the pin seat, makes molding of the device complicated and increases the mould cost.
Since on the market these devices are required to be as much as possible cheap, the known structures are not therefore satisfactory in this respect. In addition, to enable the device to fit shelves of small thickness, said device must be relatively small and this prevents the obtained elastic wings from being strong. Therefore when submitted to the stress of repeated operations, known devices show a worrying tendency to breaking.
A further important drawback of the known art resides in that known devices are hardly maneuverable without use of a tool (a screwdriver for example) and this makes positioning of the shelves utilizing such devices less prompt.
It is a general aim of the present invention to obviate the above mentioned drawbacks by providing a shelf-supporting device with a disappearing pin that is particularly strong, cheap and of easy handling.